More from these Authors

By 2015, technological innovations—the smartphone and the advanced data connectivity that enabled it—created new opportunities for people to move around cities quickly and conveniently without owning a car, via car-sharing services like Zipcar or new ride-sharing services. Uber, a five-year-old startup, enabled users to order private rides via a smartphone app. In mid-2015, the company had achieved pre-IPO market valuation of $50 billion, with operations in 311 cities in 58 countries. Despite its scale and success, Uber often found itself embroiled in controversy, with resistance from a broad range of unhappy stakeholders—regulators, competitors, drivers, and even some customers and partners—across the U.S. and the world. Could Uber continue on this route?

Having built Publicis Groupe through acquisitions maintained as separate brands, CEO Maurice Lévy wanted to transform the advertising and marketing firm to an integrated digitally-ready enterprise to address industry changes. In early 2016, following a reorganization, he faced questions of how to change the culture and use digital capabilities more effectively than competitors. Lévy turned to millennials within the Groupe and technology entrepreneurs outside the Groupe for innovations in order to create platforms for clients rather than simply react to existing social media platforms. As he increasingly focused on a new generation, questions remained about who would succeed this CEO of 31 years.